1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to wind instruments which utilize a plurality of fingering holes to control the pitch produced by a substantially enclosed air chamber, and more particularly to a pentatonic ocarina.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A wide variety of simple hand-held wind instruments have been developed and patented over the years. The applicant believes that the following U.S. patents are representative of the relevant prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,788,613 issued to Bernard discloses a wind instrument which can be mechanically adjusted to produce either full tones or half-tones. As stated in Claim 2 of the patent, however, this instrument is used to produce the notes of the chromatic scale.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,815,466 issued to Johnson discloses a fipple flute which includes a resonating chamber with four pitch control openings which is thereby able to produce an entire octave of the chromatic scale.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,145,605 issued to Mausolf discloses an ocarina which utilizes ten fingering holes to produce the notes of the scale. With this device, however, each note can only be produced by manipulating a particular fingering hole.
According to the Encyclopedia of Music by Norman Lloyd, published by the Western Publishing Company in 1971, which is hereby incorporated by reference, at pages 363-364, the ocarina: "[is] a plaintive-sounding relative of the woodwind family made of clay. Often called `sweet potato` from its shape, it has a mouthpiece of a simple whistle type, so that the tone is easy to produce, and it has eight finger holes--four on each hand--underneath which are two thumb holes and a `voicing` hole from which the air issues. The range of the ocarina is three tones larger than an octave; it comes in different sizes, each pitched in a different key. The larger the ocarina, the deeper the tone." This passage accurately describes the state of existing ocarina technology as represented by devices such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,145,605.
The present invention, however, is unique in that it is an ocarina which only produces the notes of the tonal G. anhemitonisch pentatonic scale. As stated at page 347 of A Dictionary of Musical Terms, edited by Stainer and Barr, cataloged in the Scientific Library of the Patent and Trademark Office as "ML 108.S74", which is hereby incorporated by reference, the pentatonic scale is; "The name given by Carl Engel to the ancient musical scale which is easiest described, as that formed by the black keys of the pianoforte. It consists of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th degrees of a modern diatonic scale, e.g.,: ##SPC1##
Furthermore, as stated in the Encyclopedia of Music at page 414: "Because the scale was used in countries outside Europe, there has been no pattern for the harmonization of the tones of the scale. In fact, because of the lack of half steps in the scale, any combination of tones can be sounded together. In their search for scales other than the conventional major and minor, both Debussy and Ravel lighted on the pentatonic scale and used it in their compositions."
In the context of music education, this property of the pentatonic scale, namely that any combination of notes within the scale will automatically harmonize with any other notes from within the scale, means that children playing instruments in the pentatonic scale, e.g., the black keys of a piano, or the present invention, will not produce half-tones, and hence the instrument will not produce discordant notes, which sound "wrong". This inherent property of the pentatonic scale helps encourage children to experiment and build their self-confidence with music and pentatonic instruments, secure in the knowledge that they will not be ridiculed for playing "wrong" notes.